


The Cure, and How Not to Find It

by merryghoul



Category: American Horror Story: Coven, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Community: intoabar, Crossover, Gen, Hotels, Hurt/Comfort, Los Angeles, Magic, Pre-Series, Restaurants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-15
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-03-23 00:18:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3748411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Mara finds a potential victim in a witch on Earth. It's not expecting Nyssa to get in the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cure, and How Not to Find It

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "Tegan Jovanka goes into a bar and meets... Fiona Goode (American Horror Story: Coven)!"
> 
> For Doctor Who, this is set between the serials "Arc of Infinity" and "Snakedance." Set pre-series for American Horror Story: Coven.

Tegan and Nyssa stood at the base of a hill where a Japanese pagoda was. The hill was fenced in and located by a paved road.

“Tegan, I’m pretty sure this isn't the Kew Gardens,” Nyssa said. “That pagoda certainly doesn't look like the pagoda the Doctor showed us in the TARDIS.”

“What’s the difference, Nyssa? It’s still a pagoda.”

“You don't sound like yourself.”

“What do you mean? This is exactly what I’ve sounded like for years. Besides, we might be in the future. Maybe this road leads to the park’s parking lot.”

Tegan grabbed Nyssa’s hand and pulled her towards the pagoda. She jumped the fence that separated the hill from the road. “Come on, we’ll be late,” she said, as if she had lived in California for years, not Brisbane.

“Tegan, there _is_ something wrong with you. You don't say words like that. And when did you start grabbing people?”

Tegan cleared her throat. She let go of Nyssa’s hand. “I meant let’s see if there’s anyone inside the pagoda,” she said in her usual Australian accent. “We should hurry. It’s getting dark here soon.”

Nyssa followed Tegan to the pagoda, but she knew something was wrong with Tegan.

 

At the top of the hill was more than the pagoda Tegan and Nyssa saw from the road. Various Japanese-style buildings, including the pagoda, as well as a parking lot surrounded a building that resembled a Japanese main hall. 

Nyssa saw the Hollywood sign in the distance. “We’re not in England. We’re in Los Angeles, if I have my data right.” 

“Maybe we can find a way to contact the Doctor in here,” Tegan said.

“We should wait back we left the TARDIS. The Doctor will find us.”

“Nonsense. The Doctor can find us better up here.”

Nyssa had no choice but to follow Tegan to the great hall replica.

 

The great hall replica housed a restaurant. A host was at the entrance of the restaurant.

“Hello, can I help you?” the host asked Tegan and Nyssa.

“I’m looking for Fiona Goode,” Tegan said in her American accent. “Party of two.”

“Are you dining by yourself?” the host asked Nyssa.

Nyssa interlocked her arm around Tegan’s arm. “No, I’m with her. I’m her…I’m her lover. I hope that doesn't sound strange to you.”

“No, that doesn't sound strange at all. We’re used to same-sex couple reservations. I guess whoever took your reservation earlier made a gaffe in our reservation system. No worries. I’ve seated the three of you at a table that sits four at the garden. We don't have to add an extra chair to the table. I’ll get a waiter to seat you.”

Tegan scowled as the host lead them to Fiona.

 

“Isn't LA traffic a bitch?” Fiona said as the waiter sat Tegan and Nyssa at her table. The garden beside Fiona’s table had small trees, plants and a koi pond. “I thought you’d be held up for another hour. Doctor Mara, you never mentioned that you had a significant other.”

“Doctor—”

Tegan gagged Nyssa’s mouth. “Yes. Isn't she wicked?”

“Doctor Mara, we haven't used ‘wicked’ as a slang term for years. But I think she’s lovely. It’s nice to see two women openly celebrating their love in places like this.” Fiona pointed at Nyssa. “I never got your name.”

“It’s Nyssa.”

“Nyssa Mara?”

Tegan nodded. “Nyssa Mara.”

“You’re married, too. How wonderful. Let’s see if I can flag down a waiter. I want to eat, talk over this deal you have with me, and go outside. I need a smoke.”

Over edamame starters, yellowtail sushi, lobster, and a bottle of sake, Tegan and Nyssa listened to Fiona talk about her life. Fiona was from New Orleans, and was a witch. Actually, she was the Supreme Witch of Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies, a school where witches could develop their craft in secret. “The woman who started the school wanted to protect these girls from being prosecuted,” Fiona said. “I believe that was the wrong way to go. We witches should’ve been open about our powers from the start. That way people wouldn’t be fucking with us they way they are now.” 

Part of the reason why Fiona hadn't been at the coven in years was that she was searching for a cure to reverse her aging. “My daughter runs the school in my absence. They’ll be fine. She does an adequate job of running the place. I’ll come back when I find the cure I’m looking for.”

A waiter served the three dessert, molten chocolate cake.

“You told me over the phone you had a most effective aging cure,” Fiona said to Tegan. “What was it again?”

“Phone? When did you call anyone while we—”

Tegan giggled. It sounded nothing like her usual speaking voice, let alone this American accent she had acquired. “You were shopping at La Perla on Rodeo Drive, dear.”

“Tegan…”

“How convenient,” Fiona said. “My hotel’s on Rodeo Drive. I have a room in the Four Seasons there. I’m assuming you two live nearby.”

“We do,” Tegan said. “I will bring you the cure at your hotel room. You will be youthful, more powerful again, just as you desire. For I am the Mara.”

“You’re a bit ego-centric,” Fiona said. “I like that. Let’s blow this dump and get on with this cure of yours, Doctor Mara.”

Fiona stood up. She flung the table into the garden with a wave of her hand, much to the ire of the restaurant’s staff.

 

Fiona’s room at the Four Seasons came with a chauffeur. Said chauffeur drove Fiona, Nyssa, and Tegan to Fiona’s room, gated away and hidden from the other rooms in the hotel.

Tegan walked inside the stairwell that led up to the suite, but Nyssa stopped Fiona before she could enter the suite. “Excuse me, Miss Goode, but I have to tell you something about Tegan.”

“Can it wait until I get my cure? I’m sure your trivial concern can wait a few minutes.”

“It can't wait. And I’m sorry, but my concern isn't trivial at all. Tegan and I, we’re not lovers.”

With a wave of her hand, Fiona shoved Nyssa against a wall. “I don’t think you know this yet, but it’s not nice to lie to me.”

"You don't understand. Tegan’s not herself. Tegan’s an air stewardess from Brisbane, on Earth. This Earth, back in the 1980s. She’s not a doctor.”

“And who are you?”

“Nyssa of Traken. I’m not from Earth at all. I’m from a planet that doesn't exist anymore. I’m the last of my kind.”

“So you’re a time-traveling alien.”

“If you want to call me that, yes.”

With a wave of her hand, Fiona pushed Nyssa closer to the wall. “Are you two pulling some sort of scam on me?”

“No. Not at all. We were supposed to be going to the Kew Gardens in England with our friend the Doctor. Tegan was forced to give the wrong coordinates to a busy road somewhere in Los Angeles. The Doctor had no choice but to get us out of the road.”

“The Doctor. You mean _that_ Doctor.”

Nyssa nodded.

“I met him a few years ago. He wanted me to join him on some sort of mission to some planet. I told him I would go with him if he could help find me a cure to reverse my aging. He laughed at me and said no before leaving in that blue box of his. Said I was too vain to ever travel with him.” Fiona relaxed her magic on Nyssa. “I believe you. Now what’s wrong with your friend?”

“The Mara. It’s some type of evil that manifests in the dark corners of the mind. We visited the planet where the Mara originated. It crept into Tegan’s dreams and forced her to accept it. We thought it left Tegan’s body when we left this planet, but I believe we were mistaken.”

“Let me add in the rest for you. That Mara thing you just talked about wants my powers.”

“I believe so.”

Fiona walked towards Nyssa. “I can defend myself. It’s a question of whether your friend can defend herself or not. I’m not responsible for any fatalities. Anything else I need to know?”

“The Doctor told me he defeated the Mara with mirrors. He said it was because the one thing evil cannot face is itself.”

Fiona nodded. “You two are in the right place. Any good hotel suite is full of mirrors.”

 

Tegan was waiting for Fiona and Nyssa at Fiona’s suite. 

Fiona looked Tegan up and down. “Shouldn't you have tools, Doctor Mara?”

“Why would I need tools?”

“To give me the cure, silly.”

“The tools are coming. Someone will call your suite in about five minutes with the tools.”

Fiona glared at Tegan before using the key card to open the door and letting both Tegan and Nyssa in the suite.

“Doctor Mara, would you like to see the bathroom? I’m sure you’ll need it when your tools get here. I don't need anything else you have making me sick.”

Tegan shook her head. “Oh, I don't need a bathroom.”

“That’s bullshit, Doctor Mara, and you know it. Any trained professional like yourself scrubs up in a bathroom before doing anything invasive.” Fiona took Tegan’s hand. “Now let’s look at the bathroom. I don't know why you’d be so scared of it. It’s the best bathroom in the hotel, not some dump that’s beside a coin-operated vibrating bathroom.” 

“I want to see the bathroom too, Tegan,” Nyssa said. “Let's go.”

“I know a setup when I see one,” Tegan said.

Tegan ran for the suite’s door. Fiona stopped Tegan before she could grab the handle. She pulled Tegan close to her while leaving her immobile.

“You may know a setup when you see one, but guess what? I heard about your little setup first. And as long as you don't let your evil invade my body, I still have the upper hand over you. Now let’s do what Nyssa wants to do for once and let’s go to my bathroom.”

Fiona straightened out Tegan’s legs and head with magic. She slid the immobile Tegan into the suite’s bathroom, stopping her in front of the bathroom’s mirror. A snake started escaping from Tegan’s body. It grew larger and larger.

“The Mara!” Nyssa said. 

“Just want to run something by you, kiddo. That snake’s trying to get out of my bathroom, right?”

Nyssa nodded.

Fiona closed the door to the bathroom. The Mara thrashed around in the bathroom, knocking anything and everything around. After a couple of minutes, the thrashing stopped.

“Doctor? Nyssa?” Tegan was using her Australian accent again. “Where am I? What happened? This isn't a bathroom in the TARDIS.”

“You weren't lying about your friend Nicole Kidman being from Australia,” Fiona said to Nyssa.

“Who’s Nicole Kidman?”

 

The Doctor materialized his TARDIS in the hotel room’s terrace. He walked out and ran to Nyssa and Tegan. “Nyssa? Tegan? Are you okay? I’m sorry about leaving the TARDIS in the middle of a road.”

“I’ll explain later, Doctor,” Nyssa said. “It’s a long story.”

“So this man is the Doctor?” Fiona said. “I could’ve sworn you look like—”

“The tall one in the coat and fedora with the scarf.”

“Yeah, I thought that was the Doctor.” 

“I’ve regenerated. I’ve taken on a new body.”

“You can’t show me how to do that, Doctor?”

“Fiona, regeneration is something that we Time Lords are born with. We didn't acquire it. We’re still not sure how we acquired it and we haven't fully mastered it. If you went through the process, you wouldn't survive. You’ll live longer by continuing to search for that cure to make you younger again instead of trying to learn how to regenerate.” 

The Doctor turned to Tegan and Nyssa. “Anyway, we’re far off course from where we should be. We’re already late for our meeting with William Chambers. Sorry, Fiona, but we must dash.”

“It’s a shame your girls aren’t a couple, Doctor,” Fiona said to the Doctor, Tegan, and Nyssa as they stepped into the TARDIS. “I think they look cute together.”

The TARDIS materialized away from Fiona’s veranda.

“You’re not the only alien out there, Doctor,” Fiona said to herself. “I’ll find a gullible sucker to beam me up and operate on me.” 

 

The TARDIS headed towards the Kew Gardens in London in 1762. In their bedroom, Nyssa told Tegan about their misadventure in Los Angeles.

“I don’t want to go to sleep again,” Tegan said after Nyssa was done with her story. “I thought we left the Mara back in Deva Loka.”

“You have to. It’s not good for you if you don't go to sleep.”

“What if the Mara comes back? What if I start attacking you and the Doctor?”

“We’ll deal with it when the time comes. You can go to sleep, Tegan. I’ll be here for you.”

As Tegan went to sleep, Nyssa held her hand. Nyssa smiled when Tegan dosed off. She stayed by her side until the TARDIS reached the Kew Gardens. 

Tegan dreamed of walking around Kew Gardens. Nyssa held her hand. There were no snakes to be seen, but if there were any snakes, they’d be ready to battle them again.


End file.
